Pros and cons

What I like in Sindal?

What I do not like in Sindal?

…

What can be improved?

the number of small objects

building details

photoscenery area

Sindal

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Sindal

Sindal is a small community of 3000 people in the northern part of Jutland – just south of Skagen Odde – the peninsula at the northern end of Denmark. It is not a usual small airfield. At first glance you could say that it is just a small airport where a local club operates in a quiet and calm atmosphere. Instead you will find an ILS equipped airport that serves as a base for multiple air taxi companies and boasts several hangars.

Even more unusual is Danish military activity at Sindal. Flyvevåbnet’s C-130 Hercules fly there on a training missions involving short runway operations. The C-130s never leave the runway – loading and offloading happens of the runway in place where it intersects with the paved taxiway.

I could not help myself

Sindal has a single asphalt runway (26/08) that is 1199 meters or 3933 feet long. Runway 26 is equipped with ILS. The apron and the taxiway leading to hangars are paved. Additionally there is a grass taxiway connecting hangars and the runway (it shortens taxi time for aircraft departing runway 26).

Apart from the Hercules Danish Royal Air Force also flies its Saab Safari trainer aircraft to this airport. You can also spot a police or medical helicopter here (medical usually means military SAR helicopter). That is not all – special forces practice at this airport occasionally. There is also a annual air show organized in Summer by the local club.

What to fly and where to?

Basically you can fly a small plane around Denmark or cross Kattegat to Sweden. If you take something larger or a twin – you can fly wherever such plane can fly as an Air-Taxi or a large private plane. If it’s important for you to fly realistically – customs and border control is available during operational hours of this airport (for hours – check AIP).

C-130 that use this airfield are based in nearby Aalborg. T17 trainers in Karup – in the central Denmark. Medical flights destinations can be as close as Aalborg or more distant – like Aarhus or Copenhagen.

Airport gate

Vidan Design Danish Airfields X – Sindal

Sindal in FSX

Purchase and installation

Danish Airfields X Sindal product page shows several stores where you can buy this scenery. If you live outside of EU I suggest you buy it at Vidan Designs shop – so that you support the developer directly. This option is unavailable to EU residents – the best deal can be found in Australian FlightSimStore, where this scenery costs 11.95 Australian Dollars (a little over 7 Euro or a little over $8).

The installer requires the product key to run. After the scenery is installed you need to add it manually to the Scenery Library in FSX (look for it in your main FSX folder / Vidan Design / Danish Airfields X / Sindal).

Airport buildings

Manual and seasons configuration tool

The PDF manual has 9 pages and is located in the same folder as the scenery. It explains how to install the scenery and how to use the seasons configurator. It also provides the basic information about the airport and suggest best FSX settings for this scenery.

Seasons configurator is a small program that allows you to change scenery textures to match the season.

AFIS

Requirements

To enjoy the best quality of ground textures make sure that your Texture resolution slider is set at 15cm or above (above means the smaller value).

Mustang – I saw a photo of P-51 at Sindal Air Show

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Sindal in FSX

Sindal scenery covers the airport and the closest vicinity – 200-300 meters in each direction including several farms located around the airfield.

Ground and taxiways (4*****)

According to my unofficial and strictly personal criteria 15-cm is the minimum resolution for airport photoscenery. The grass in this resolution looks nice from any GA plane.

The resolution of paved runway, apron and taxiways seem higher. Both asphalt and concrete have a distinctive texture and show signs of use.

At first I thought that this building is not to scale – but the real photos look just as ridiculous as this screenshot

I do not like how the parking texture joins the background. There is a distinctive border between the concrete textures in some places.

On the other hand – I like the taxiway and runway markings – not only they are realistic but also the layout is realistic and current. Do not be surprised it the taxiway marking ends as you enter the apron – it’s like this at the real airport.

Buildings (4****)

There are seven hangars of a small to medium size and two large ones (side by side). The main airport building is a tiny yet complex structure with a tower-like feature on top – that is a place where AFIS staff works.

Airport building

More detauils

In many respects this buildings is a standard Vidan Design’s product. They are all correct. Nice but not breathtaking. And they all excel in one field – texturing. Phototextures based on location photos are very convincing and what the buildings of this scenery lack in 3d details they make it up with images covering their walls.

The main building has an advanced model (when compared to average payware scenery) but it is just average when compared with payware sceneries of small airports. For such a location it could have more three dimensional features – for example the fire extinguisher at the screen below could be modeled (it’s only a flat texture on the wall). I would not mind seeing 3d windows and door frames.

What I adore in this building are the textures I mentioned earlier. Each wall is covered with a photo of the real world wall. Windows make the biggest impression. I can look “inside” and there are reflections that show what a photographer saw. I made an interesting observation that demonstrate the attention to details. There is a window showing car reflection – and there is a model of a car of the same color and shape parked in front of this window. That is amazing!

I think that this windows are amazing

When compared to the main building hangars are a little inferior when it comes to their models. Textures are delightful. What makes a difference is the real world shape of the building. A hangar is usually shaped like a box. Without additional details – it does not look impressive. For example – there are details like lamps hanging from the wall – only the biggest hangars have these lamps modeled in 3d. There are lamp-textures on the other hangars…

Textures – beautiful. Model – in this case – quite nice.

Mesh

Well… it is the northern Denmark. I expected that it will be flat. And it is. I had too take a walk around the scenery to find a place where the terrain descents. I have no idea if that is the effect of scenery or a global mesh. But it’s cool.

3d grass (3***)

It’s here, but it’s sparse.

3d grass

Autogen (4*****)

There is not much the developer can do in such a confined area. Still – in this scenery autogen is placed correctly in most locations where a shade of the tree is visible on the ground. Unfortunately there are some (rare) locations where the trees are missing.

Trees

The vicinity of the airport (4****)

It’s my rule not to comment on the scenery coverage. It’s the developers decision and I rate what he promises and offers. In this case I will make an exception because I feel that 200-300 meters around the airport is just not enough – it’s hard to watch the scenery when flying the airport pattern – it’s just too small. This impression should change when Vidan Design releases Denmark Photoscenery but for now – the area is too small.

Ok – what is included in this small area? There are several farms around the airport. Their buildings are located in the real world building locations. There is also a small amount of clutter placed by this buildings – a tractor, a trailer and a mobile water (or fertilizer) tank.

I like what I can find around the airport.

Airport clutter and small objects (5*****)

It’s one of the strongest points of Vidan Design sceneries. Let’s start by the airport building. A white weather station stands next to the fence. There are two fuel pumps on apron. If you need to start up your plane – a GPU cart / rectifier cart awaits for you. The airport is small but there is a Melex electric car parked by apron and a second one next to the hangar.

Fuel

I found more GPU carts as I taxied to hangars. There were two or three models showing different shape and colors.

there are at least 4 GPU carts like this

At least in two places I found a broom and a bucked standing by the building wall. That is something I like very much – it suggests that someone actually works there.

Additionally there are several containers, barrels and crates.

Frankly – appetite grows with eating. I would like to see even more small objects in this scenery. But it’s still very good!

Hangars and containers

Weather station

Performance (very good)

I saw no impact on FSX performance when using this scenery. It’s a small airport and even with this amount of details and objects it should not cause any problems.

A distinctively Danish taxiway markings

Summary (4****)

Design Danish Airfields X – Sindal Vidan Design is a good scenery. It’s biggest advantage is that is has no serious flaws. Fine buildings covered with photoreal textures make a good impression strengthened by a high quality ground and a well placed small objects. Together this features bring some live and realism to this scenery. It is an airport that I want as my destination. I recommend it!